Southern Guam Little League Wins Asia-Pacific Region,Qualifies for 2008 Little League Baseball World Series

Southern Guam Little League Wins Asia-Pacific Region,Qualifies for 2008 Little League Baseball World Series

By Little League Communications Division
Williamsport, Pa.
July 24, 2008

Southern Guam Little League from Yona, Guam, has won the Asia-Pacific Region Championship, and is the third league to qualify for the 62nd Little League Baseball World Series in Williamsport, Pa.

The Southern Guam Little League defeated Hong Kong Little League, 5-2, in the championship game. The Asia-Pacific Region winners finished the 12-team tournament with a 6-0 record to earn a spot in the 2008 World Series.

Teams from Guam have competed in the Little League Baseball World Series four times, but have never played for the World Series championship. The most recent qualifier from the island territory was Central East Little League from Barrigada in 2005. This is the first time that Southern Guam Little League will be represented in the World Series Tournament.

Southern Guam Little League joins Latin America Region Champion Coquivacoa Little League of Maracaibo, Venezuela, and Japan’s national Champion, Edogawa Minami Little League from Tokyo, as participants in the 2008 Little League Baseball World Series.

The Little League Baseball World Series for 11-12-year-olds will be played in Williamsport, Aug. 15-24. Sixteen teams from around the world will take part.

The World Series championship game can be seen live on ABC at 3:30 p.m., on Sunday, Aug. 24. ABC also will televise the International Championship Game on Saturday, Aug. 23 at 12:30 p.m., followed by the United States championship at 3 p.m.

The 2008 World Series will be the second operated under the eight-year television contract agreement with ESPN/ABC. Five games will be televised on ABC. This will be the third year that all of the World Series games will be televised in high definition. For the seventh year since the tournament expanded from eight to 16 teams in 2001, every team will have games on national television.

All 32 games of the World Series will be televised again this year. Fifteen World Series games will be televised on ESPN and 11 will be televised on ESPN2.

In addition, the ESPN family of networks will carry all eight of the U.S. Regional Championship finals in the Little League Baseball division. The U.S. regional finals have been televised by ESPN and ESPN2 every year since 1997. Little League International also has formed a unique relationship with the New England Sports Network (NESN) and Madison Square Garden network (MSG) to televise the New England and Mid-Atlantic regional tournaments in Bristol, Conn. Each network will televise four early-round games.

The next berth in the Little League Baseball World Series is expected to be decided on Saturday, when the Caribbean Region Tournament in Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles is due to end.